Slice the Distin family through the middle and the chances are that, like a stick of rock, they'll have 'Buckfastleigh' written right through them.

Whether it's football, fireworks, darts, snooker or the youth club, they have all been involved somewhere along the line.

True, dad Enoch has the ghost of a skeleton in the closet as really he's a 'furriner', an Ashburton lad by birth and only lured to Buckfastleigh a trifling four decades ago by the young Pauline, now his wife and mother to their two daughters, Emma and Kim.

Pauline, a cook at Kenwyn residential home, and Enoch, an underlay maker at Axminster Carpets, share their Tor View home with 29-year-old Emma.

Kim, 27, lives next door with her new baby. They're close, in every sense.

The Distins met as teenagers at Buckfastleigh Youth Club in 1973.

In those days, when the late bus still ran, youngsters came from all over to attend, so popular was the venue and its then leader, Jim Elliott, Emma's godfather.

Although Jim died four years ago, the club is still going strong and this weekend will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a party for members past and present.

FULL STORY IN OUR ONLINE EDITION